If you have ever participated at CMON, you know that two hobbies are on display there, mini painting and photography. A bad picture of a great mini will get a mediocre score. Whoever is doing the photography for the first Crystal Brush painting competition is having a very frustrating day, I'm sure.
When voting came online, about 11:30 PM Eastern time, it became very clear that photography was not going to tell the story of many of these pieces. Some were clearly amazing. Others... less so. Some it is impossible to tell. I was going to include some images of the minis that I really liked and some that I just couldn't discern the quality level from the Crystal Brush photo, but in the spirit of not commenting on an ongoing competition I will save those for after voting has closed.
After voting on a hundred or so minis, I have to wonder if a purely judge-based system isn't the best way to go. I'm giving it my best to score these, but I just don't feel like I'm in possession of all the data.
3 days ago
Mini photography is... maddening. I've had the same piece jump almost a full point on CMON just by re-photographing it! Admittedly, the second pic was _much_ better, but I think my point stands.
ReplyDeleteHaving a look through the Crystal Brush entries, it's obvious that a much better photo setup should have been used, rather than "bright unidirectional lighting on black velvet", which flatters none of them :P At least they ALL look about equally un-flattered, but it's still a shame.